Sony is really keeping their guard up as long as possible. lol this i.load hack was only released on the 10th and it's already been patched...wow lol I think they've got some 1337 hackers working for them to counter the hackers outside. It's fun to read about the battles between Sony and hackers.

Also, I just realized, Sony has built the network so that as soon as you log into the PSN you're immediately prompted to updated your firmware version. This means that if you're going to attempt to get online you'll have to have the latest official firmware from Sony, which would mean you can't play online if you've got hacked firmware, yes?

You set up a Proxy for your PS3 and the Proxy is set to intercept the firmware checks and redirects them to another site that states that there are no new updates for your PS3. But I'm sure Sony has already thought of this and has implemented multiple checks through their site and the login process for online play.

the proxy will work to allow you to connect to the internet without constant update reminders...but you will not be able to login in to the PSN...

I made a proxy whenever they had that update last year that kept getting stuck...so I just wanted to play some other stuff without being told every 5 minutes I needed to download an update (I think it was 1.90 or something, for a lot of people it wouls go to 22% and then crash)...

makes sense though...the PSN requires identical OS versions for compatability...you can still connect to the internet with the 'older' version though...but basically...no online gaming without the newer version of the OS...

there were directions on the PS forums a while ago for proxy setup...another option was closing ports (disabling Upnp, or manually) that the PSN required...that stopped the update reminders also iirc...

firmware 2.15 http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News... maybe sony was trying to cover that up if it was called 2.16 then people will automatically think about 2.15 so they thought 2.17 was random enough and stayed in the teen

actually there is nothing weird with the numbers. The developers do not stop making version only cause they do not release them to the public. Sony stated last year that they will try to reduce the number of forced updates to whats necessary cause some people complained about the regular updates (no idea why someone would do that, but idiots come in all kind of flavors it seems). I wouldn't be surprised if the internal version is at 2.18 already. As 2.17 naturally went through the whole QA system before release.

As usual Sony uses a pretty normal x.x.x Version numbering scheme

M.F.B -> Mayor.Feature.Bugfix

the second . is nearly always ommited cause its easier to represent the version as a number with only one '.' 2.17 = mayor system release 2.feature release version 1.bugfix for said feature release 7

when the first number changes you can expect a huge change in the system, lotsa new features and changes to the core system workings

when the 2nd number changes you will have new or changed features and when the number behind that changes you have a bugfix or stability release for the features in the version released earlier.

Obviously they did not plan to release 2.17 but afaik someone leaked version 2.15 and that could have led to problems with people having different but valid online versions (remember the online servers will only check if you have AT LEAST the required official version, 2.15 was newer than 2.1 hence it would allow connection to the PSN but could cause problems for other users still using the 2.1 version. So to prevent any misshap they release bugfix version7 and voila, the PSN requires you to update to that and the leaked 2.15 is no longer valid on the servers.

I expect a 2.2x version for the beginning of april as they said the network would get an overhaul by then.

Version numbers are just a way to keep track of what updates are done to something.

Sony could still be on version 1.1999 or 8.2. It depends on how they wish to set version numbers.

When a number jumps 0.1 to 0.5 these normally represent minor updates where as when whole numbers are raised these normally represent major changes.

In this case I think 2.10 - 2.17 a few changes where made that wheren't releasd to the public. So instead of releasing 2.11 and confusing the version changes that wheren't released to the public they just kept the interal numbers.

When your a programmer or developer keeping version differences is critical. If you make an update it could effect something it wasn't meant to and having each update sequence verified helps a lot. Also if you make a modification and become confused about what was edited you could set yourself back hundreds of man hours recreating code that you already wrote or recompiling it with older code.

This is why the jump from 2.10 to 2.17 shouldn't concern you as it's simply there for the developers reference and less for consumers. All you need to know is you've got the latest version and what changes have been made since your last update.

Playstation 3's the only console this generation that wasn't cracked/hacked 3 months after its release, it's been well over a year now and still no solid proof of any hacks that can run backup games. Even then, good luck copying 10-25GB worth of data to your disks.